#75 man → hand

Quick Summary

The Latin root word man means “hand.” This root word is the word origin of a number of English vocabulary words, including manuscript, manufacture, and manicure. An easy way to remember that man means “hand” is through the word manual, an adjective which describes a task done by “hand.”

Ingredient Memlet: manacle

Ingredient Memlet: legerdemain

Legerdemain is accomplished through “lightness of the hand,” a way of tricking people (usually through “sleight” of hand). This word came from Latin to English via the French legerdemain: “lightness of hand.” The French adjective leger (“light, not heavy”) came straight from the Latin levis, “light, of little weight.”

Manage Handy “Man”

The Latin root word man means “hand.” This “handy” word root will let you manhandle English words with man in them!

Let’s talk about the many “handy” man words one finds in the English language. One of the advantages that humankind has is an opposable thumb, which greatly helps with the ability to manipulate tools, or operate them with the “hands.” When the Industrial Revolution began, there was a lot of manual labor, or work by “hand.” When items were manufactured, they were primarily made by “hand.” Overseeing those workers was the manager, the one who “handled” the workers to get the most effective work out of them. The manager had to make sure that the right maneuvers were being performed by those workers, or the right work by their “hands.” And of course the manager could probably get more positive work out of the laborers if he were to stick to his manners, or the social “handiness” of saying such things as “please” and “thank you.” His manners would really have to be in tip-top shape when overseeing those who had to work with manure, etymologically animal fertilizer which is spread by “hand!”

After all that difficult work by hand, what could be better than getting a manicure to take care of those hard-working “hands?”

Can you guess what the words manacle and emancipation have in common with American History and with each other? When the slaves in the United States were freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation (etymologically “the taking of people’s ‘hands’ out of their restraints”) Proclamation, their actual and social manacles, or handcuffs that kept their “hands” bound in servitude, were forever taken away. The Emancipation Proclamation was a key manuscript, or document written by “hand,” that was issued in the midst of the American Civil War.

I hope that you will now be able to automatically instead of manually know the “handy” root word man!